


Scenes from a (bad?) Romance

by Measured_Words



Category: Changeling: the Dreaming, Webercon Whidbey Island Changeling Game
Genre: F/M, Mercenaries, Past Lives, Romance, Singing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28177128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/pseuds/Measured_Words
Summary: Purging some disconnected thoughts from my brain.  Possible backstory for Past!Trolius and Akasha.
Relationships: Trolius Eiluned/Akasha Quick
Kudos: 3





	Scenes from a (bad?) Romance

It started with a song, heard drifting down from a tower. Trolius, who had been trying to familiarize himself with his current employer's grounds stopped to listen. He was considering whether he should seek out the source of the beautiful sound when it cut off abruptly. Shortly thereafter he could hear the muffled and much less appealing tones of his host's voice, and shorty after that, an altogether different harmony taking place. He put it out of his mind. Or he tried to – the memory of the melody haunted him. He took to waking in the garden more regularly, hoping to catch it again. When he did, he looked to the window, but the figure he saw there slipped quickly away from his sight.  


* * *

  
It was a full moon.  
"Do you often walk in the gardens at night, Sir?" she asked.  
"Do you?" He took her hand and kissed in in a show of gallantry. He didn't know what she knew of him, but based on the bashful smile, he guessed very little.  


* * *

  
"What did you think of that, Sir Trolius?"  
"Lovely," he answered with bland honesty, wary of being called out so at the feast.  
"Isn't she? Akasha is my little songbird." He beckoned her over to sit on his lap, fondling her possessively. "And I shall keep her all to myself." He laughed.  


* * *

  
"Another moonlight stroll?"  
"Nightmares again?"  
There was a tension to the brief silence, before he offered her his hand. "Shall I escort you back to your tower?"  
"Yes please. I hear the campaign will be starting soon?"  
"Yes." It had taken longer than he'd liked to organize, but the pay kept coming steady. Probably his employer thought that if he kept the gold flowing, the mercenaries were less likely to run off with his property.  
"And you'll be gone?"  
"For a time, yes."  
"But you'll return?"  
"I will."  


* * *

  
"Buy her?" he laughed. "With my own gold? I don't think so."  
"Fine," answered Trolius, having anticipated this lack of sense. He touched a hand to his sword. "Then let's make it a challenge."  


* * *

  
To be part of his company – to earn her freedom – she needed to learn to fight. He stood across the clearing from her, unarmed or armoured, waiting for her first attack. She barely knew how to hold her sword, and her lunge was clumsy. She wound up on the ground so quickly she wasn't sure what had happened, and caught herself badly on her wrist.  
Trolius kicked her weapon back to her. "Again."  
His voice was the cold tone he used when displeased with his company, but there was a distance to it, and to the look in his eyes, that scared her. She burst into tears.  
"Akasha…" He was by her side, helping her up, and now she saw the man who claimed he loved her, who'd let her take his hand in the moonlit garden when evil dreams had shaken him so badly he could hardly speak. "I'm sorry. I –" He pulled himself together. "I'll have Asher train you."  


* * *

  
She trained, she learned, she fought. She made a name for herself – Akasha Quick. When her heart was wholly her own, she weighed it carefully and, knowing its value, she gave it back.


End file.
